Posted:21st Mar 2003Ok, here it is, the long awaited "dancing thread". This is an open forum for the discution of dancing with your poi. This includes all forms of bodily movement, feet, hips, head, whatever you can think of. Well.....let's here some ideas.

Posted:7th Jul 2010I have just encountered a dance hangup during my last burn and wondering how anyone feels on a basic level about this...

How are you supposed to pivot and pirouette let alone have a good flow on grass that is anything but well manicured? I can't dance on anything but a dancefloor or pavement with optimal success, but crunchy, thick, long grass was the biggest thing screwing up my flow.

Any advice on just being on rough grass? I have a hard time doing anything on uneven, not smooth ground...EDITED_BY: EpitomeOfNovice (1278445207)

~Rock on!~

"As the pattern gets more intricate and subtle, being swept along is no longer enough"-Waking Life

Posted:7th Jul 2010I have similar problems with burns at the beach (sand blows) or on ground that isn't level. Honestly, I think you either have to spend a lot of time on these surfaces, or just suck it up and/or avoid them. I try to avoid venues that involve bad ground, since I never can get the hang of them.

You're not supposed to have a good flow on these surfaces at all - it's just trying not to look too disgraceful and keep smiling.

For me the trick simply works like: continuing to stomp my feet to the beat of the music. Next to take steps. And finally to make the transitions of the moves according to the beat. at some stage it's pretty obvious when the transitions in the music come (counting) so you can sync to that once you get the hang of it.

I find sync spinning @ >130bpm's quite straining and don't even try to keep up longer than 2min's. Usually I'm looking at some slower element within that music, alternate speed (sync to every beat and then half the speed) or adjust to - say - not the beat but some other element/ instrument.

Originally Posted By: Melthe lady who gave me my poi told me that its not about the way you move your poi as such but the way you move with the poi, i liked that, the poi should (in my opinion) should be an extension of yourself when dancing, you need to feel the tension of the poi's and use it to your advantage when moving with them.

precisely - which is why I'm advising to close eyes and deprive the lazy mind of visual input. When dancing with fire you hardly have enough input anyway. Knowing exactly when which poi is where in space around your body will make you a lot more confident moving about.